Chime
nounA musical ringing sound, especially one made by a bell or set of tuned bells.
How to spell chime
5 letters · 1 syllable
How to pronounce chime
What does chime mean?
- nounA musical ringing sound, especially one made by a bell or set of tuned bells.
- verbTo ring out with a musical sound, or to express agreement by joining in.
Chime in a sentence
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noun
The soft chime of the doorbell told her a guest had arrived.
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verb
The old bells chime on the hour throughout the village.
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noun
Every hour the clock tower sounds a deep chime across the square.
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verb
She waited for a pause before she could chime in with her own idea.
Where does chime come from?
Language of origin: Latin
Chime traces back to the Latin cymbalum, meaning 'cymbal', which itself was borrowed from the Greek kymbalon, a hollow metal percussion instrument named from kymbe, 'a cup or hollow vessel'. In early Middle English the word appeared as chimbe or chymbe, used for a set of tuned bells, and over time the 'b' sound dropped away and the spelling settled into the modern shape. By the 1300s it referred to the harmonious ringing of a row of bells, and the verb 'to chime' grew from that, meaning to ring in tune. The figurative sense, to agree or be in harmony, and the familiar phrase 'chime in', meaning to join a conversation, developed naturally from that idea of voices ringing together. The silent connection to 'cymbal' is the surprising part: a soft ringing chime and a clashing cymbal share the very same ancient root.
How the word is built
- chime (single root, from Latin cymbalum 'cymbal'; no separable prefix or suffix)
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